How To Tune Into Pirate Radio

Pirate stations can be more difficult to receive than legal stations, due to the fact that the legal stations have their aerials on giant masts and towers almost anywhere they like, and pirates are restricted in their transmission sites.

You can hear some pirates on cheap portable radios, but you’ll hear a lot more with a decent tuner and an outside aerial. For instance, I use a Sony RX90 system (R.R.P. £499) to receive, but you don’t have to spend hundreds of pounds to hear these stations.

The reason you won’t hear much on cheap radios is because they aren’t designed to be particularly sensitive. You can hear most local legal stations due to their power output and the height of their aerials, but pirates use lower power levels and only have access to sites such as tower blocks and such.

Old transistor based analogue radios are excellent for listening. If you are fortunate to have one, clean it out and make sure there are no dry connections or split tracks on the board. Connect up to an outside aerial, and you’ve got yourself an excellent listening apparatus. If you don’t have one, you can get one quite cheaply from a radio rally. The longer the frequency display is (analogue only), the better, as you can tune more finely.

To hear what there is, you will need :

A good quality tuner, a suitable FM aerial (e.g. Dipole, available from most aerial shops at around £10-20), the required length of coaxial RF lead, to connect your radio with the aerial (RG59 or most types of 75 ohm coax can be used, but best results will be achieved using RG59. It really depends on what impedance your aerial input is) and a connector (usually a TV Plug type. Not more than £1. Maplin order code CC68Y).

It doesn’t really matter what coax you use, as long as it is 75 ohm (TV aerial lead RG59 type) or 50 ohm (RG58 type) to match your aerial. Dipoles will get you the best reception without moving it, as they are omnidirectional.

Now that’s the best way to do it, but if you don’t want to spend that much money here’s an alternative:

You’ll need…

A length of wire (any wire will do) and an aluminium rod or something metal to attach it to (e.g. the frame of satellite dish) and a digital Tuner.

That’s the cheap way to do it. The higher the aerial is, the better reception you’ll get. Don’t use several bits of wire together, as this attenuates the signal.

To check if your aerial works, use your standard aerial (wire or telescopic) fully extended (if using wire aerial, pin it to a wall, high up), and find a station with a medium signal strength. Then, attach your aerial to your radio set instead, and listen to the signal. If it gets stronger, the aerial works. If it gets weaker, this means your aerial is acting as an attenuator. Attenuators cut down signals, you’ll need to check it’s connections and cable. Also try repositioning your aerial. Keep your coaxial lead well away from any other wires, whether electrical, audio or other. TVs and PCs also interfere, so move your coax as far away as possible.